Beautiful One Day, Wild The Next.

Above: Storm rolling in.

"I think of the light here like that, like a splinter of a star that’s fallen to earth: it just shines, no matter what is happening. Summer, winter, storm, fine weather. People can rely on it.”

- Tom, The Light Between The Oceans

We have had some wild weather interspersed with sunny, calm days. One day we were swimming and the next storms were rolling through. The old meteorology room has a vintage wind meter which still works - On Sunday it was measuring winds gusting at 60 - 65 knots (around 110km/hour), we could almost lean into the wind without falling over.

On nicer days we have been spending a lot of time in the vegie garden, not only maintaining and harvesting for ourselves but also getting seedlings established for the next caretakers. We have a bit of a tomato glut so have made sauces, soups and chutneys. There are loads of carrots which have gone into several carrot cakes as well as coleslaw thanks to the many cabbages.

Dan has done a bit of fishing catching flathead, salmon, and tommy roughs, with lobster hopefully next on the list. We also hiked to Peg Leg Cove which was the last cove accessible by walking trail that we were yet to visit. It is a rocky but beautiful. It was like glass the day we were there and we were disappointed we had not brought our snorkelling gear.

With the island now officially closed to all visitors we briefly considered introducing naked Mondays (a challenge accepted after a few reds shared over the phone with our mate Disy). Disappointingly (for Disy), It only lasted for 2 hours - then a boat arrived and hung around for a couple of days. Although they never came ashore we have decided to not go full Adam and Eve for now - there’s also a little too much stinging nettle posing further risks that neither of us are willing to take. (Sorry Disy)!

It hasn’t been all play and no work. We have whipper snipped, mowed, sawed fallen trees, fixed broken fences, erected “island closed” signs, sharpened mower blades and cleared paths. Oh, and we trapped and removed a pesky possum which had made himself very comfortable in our herb garden.

Finally, we were excited to hear of the safe arrival of Elsie - Sending our love and congratulations to Alex and Jess from afar. We cant wait to cuddle her.

Releasing the possum that set up residence in our herb garden

Vintage anemometer showing wind speed and direction.

Checking the rainfall in the wind

Peg Leg Cove

Peg Leg Cove

The museum through a hole in the gate carefully fashioned by a previous caretaker

Wallaby's hanging out at Winter Cove

We headed to Winter Cove again to install some "Island Closed" signs.

The vegie patch

Dan doing a spot of fishing at Garden Cove